Lately we have been enjoying some beans from the garden and some fresh salads - we have, rocket, mizuna, mustard and some other salad varieties. A lot of things are getting eaten by the possums, the spinach is especially popular! Just when I think it's almost time for spinach pie it gets whisked away! Never-the-less we do get to eat some things. We also have corn and tomatoes on the way.
The carnations were a gift from one of the kids grandmothers "Marnie".
This water dragon hangs out in our garden sometimes. I like to think of our garden as a haven for native animals. Here it is hanging out on the veranda of the cubby house.
Since these photos were taken the lettuce and parsley have been eaten by the local possums. They are just resprouting now.
Currently in our winter garden we have:
strawberry plants
oregano
sage
lemongrass
mint
parsley
perpetual lettuce
mizuna greens
garlic chives
onion
A sprouting store bought onion which I planted in a pot to see what it would do.
I have never used sage in cooking before so I'm looking forward to trying this.
Recently I have been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and watching "Gardening Australia" and "the Edible Garden". I have been inspired to grow our own fruit, herbs and vegetables and have so far started planting a small amount of herbs and salad greens. We have been happy with the results, enjoying salad from our own garden most days. It tastes so much better when it hasn't been sitting in storage for awhile, and it saves us buying a massive lettuce or bunch of herbs and wasting what we don't need.
Above is the Mizuna which is a Japanese lettuce with yellow flowers which you can also eat. We also have mustard greens, perpetual lettuce and sweet rocket (which is a delicious spicy flavour). In the herbs we have rosemary (established), lemongrass, oregano, continental parsley, mint, lemon thyme and garlic chives.
I have two types of strawberries, one type has white flowers and they were a gift from a friend, the other has pink flowers and has green fruit now. My white flowering strawberry plants have produced two ripe strawberries so far, but they where nabbed by birds before I could get to them. I might have to put netting over them so I get to try one this season!
Catching up on some posts... I have been otherwise occupied having my spring baby! I'll update on that soon. Meanwhile all the flowers and bees are out in our garden. When it rains you can hear frogs chirping happily from their leafy homes, and the bell birds tinking away at the tops of the trees. I love this time of year.
In summer it is a bit hot to hang out in our backyard too much but lately it has been cooler and lovely out there. We have got Ethan some more outdoor toys so he is loving it out the back too. Now we are looking for a little cubby house to put out there.
These native violets I planted in the front yard when we moved in, they are flowering like crazy now. I'm hoping that soon we will have carpets of these between the other plants. I think I will move the ones in the pot to the back garden and plant my strawberries in the pot. These plants love a bit of precipitation, they go a bit nuts after the rain, but they also do ok when it is dry. I love them.
Beautiful parrot perched in our Japanese maple. He was very friendly and curious.
This Sydney rock orchid is one of the few gems in our weed ridden garden. I might try and grow more orchids on this wall. Which I might add is probably populated by horrible deadly funnel web spiders. They love it around holes in rocks. The home where I grew up had so many in the backyard, and honestly I have never seen one alive. My Mum did find quite a few while gardening.